A former St. Louis County healthcare company owner admitted submitting more than $3.8 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid, and private healthcare benefit programs. Carlos Himpler, 44, now of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, pleaded guilty in US District Court in St. Louis to a felony conspiracy charge. Himpler, who at the time lived in St. Louis County, described himself as a “business development strategist” and owned or operated a series of healthcare-related businesses. Himpler’s co-defendant, Dr. Franco Sicuro, also owned businesses including Advanced Geriatric Management LLC (AGM) at 10199 Woodfield Lane in Creve Coeur. In the fall of 2014, Himpler and Dr. Sicuro decided to open an in-house testing lab at AGM. They also decided to open Genotec DX, which they held out as a clinical testing laboratory, and agreed to split profits 50-50. Genotec was in the same building and used the same testing machine as AGM’s lab. Their goal was to maximize their profits from the lab testing business. The pair did not disclose that both labs would employ the same part-time employee who would perform tests using the same machine. They also concealed Sicuro’s co-ownership of Genotec from Medicare, Medicaid and private healthcare insurers, while referring urine specimens from Sicuro’s own practice, AGM, to Genotec. Himpler admitted in his plea agreement that Medicare, Medicaid, and private healthcare insurers paid $1.4 million in pass-through billing and $2.4 million in split billing.
